High-Impact Research: Blending Science, Engineering, and Design. Talk by Ben Shneiderman

Co-hosted by Kellogg Booth (UBC Computer Science / GRAND) & Panos Nasiopoulos  (ICICS).

Speaker: Professor Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland--College Park

Title: High-Impact Research: Blending Science, Engineering, and Design

Abstract: High-Impact Research strategies could help large and small projects to deepen human understanding of the natural and made worlds, so as to promote sustainable use of natural resources and improve quality of life for individuals, organizations, communities, and nations.  The raised expectations are that by addressing basic and applied research goals from the start, projects will yield higher quality basic and applied results. The High-Impact Research strategies are not for everyone, but I claim that researchers are more likely to achieve high impact, if they follow these strategies:

• Choose actionable problems that address civic, business & global priorities
• Blend science, engineering, and design knowledge & research methods
• Seek interdisciplinary collaborations with diverse individuals & organizations
• Build on generalizable theories, principles & guidelines
• Develop prototypes that are tested with ever more realistic interventions
• Use quantitative big data & qualitative case study research methods
• Promote adoption & measure impact

There are many ways to apply these strategies, and there may be other strategies that would be helpful, but the number of individuals, teams, and organizations that are already demonstrating their value is growing.  My hope is to accelerate their adoption and provoke discussion of these and creative alternatives

Bio

Ben Shneiderman is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Founding Director (1983-2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (https://hcil.umd.edu/), and a Member of the UM Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) at the University of Maryland. For more information, please see http://www.cs.umd.edu/~ben/.

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This event's address: https://my.cs.ubc.ca/event/2014/09/high-impact-research-blending-science-engineering